Showtime Confirms “L Word” Spinoff Details at TCA Press Tour

At the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour yesterday, Showtime
president Robert Greenblatt released a few details about the pilot for the L Word spinoff, a drama series set in a women’s prison and tentatively
titled The Farm.

The pilot has been shot, Greenblatt told reporters (including AfterElton.com‘s
Michael Jensen, who reported back to us), but Showtime execs have not yet seen
it cut together.

The spinoff is "a substantially different show" from The L Word,
Greenblatt said, and includes only a few lesbian characters among the cast:

We’ve been a little bit, sort of, mysterious about the concept, but you know,
I don’t think it’s that much of a mystery anymore. One of the characters fromThe L Word actually goes to prison, and the show then moves to prison
with a largely completely new cast. … While The L Word was predominantly
lesbian characters, [the spinoff is] a big group of characters. And there’s
a few lesbians in that group, but it isn’t the exact makeup of what The
L Word was.

"The spinoff is anchored by Leisha Hailey," he told reporters, confirming
what Hailey and Chaiken stated publicly a few months ago. "So I guess I’ve
given it up. She’s the one that ends up going to jail."

But, Greenblatt cautioned, "it’s a big cast of characters … there’s
three guest stars in the pilot, and whether or not those characters would continue
in the series is — you know, we don’t know yet."

Greenblatt confirmed that the three guest stars are Famke Janssen, Laurie Metcalf,
and Melissa Leo, as we
speculated last week.

When a reporter commented that the spinoff sounded like "a female version
of Oz" — HBO’s critically acclaimed drama about a men’s
prison that ran from 1997 to 2003 — Greenblatt agreed, saying "that’s
not a bad description." But he believes it has a slightly lighter tone:

There’s a lot of female prison shows around the world from that — you
know, that have spun off from that Cell Block H show that’s been
— there’s half-hour versions of it and everything, which tends to be
campy. This is a — it’s a grittier look than that would be. I wouldn’t
say it’s as dark as Oz. I don’t know what could be, but this isn’t.

Showtime will make a decision in the next few months about whether to pick
up the series.